Hooray, I think

I realize I'm going to have to change the title of my blog, as I'm no longer in London and probably won't be for quite awhile.

I went into NBC 15 this afternoon and talked to the news director, and he told me they have a job offer for me right away. Hooray! There is a little catch:

It's a job working as an Assignment Editor in the evenings, so not the producing job that I wanted, but he said that in September there will be an opportunity to move up to a producer once they start a few more news programs. It's basically a "foot-in-the-door" type of job, as he described it, but I think it will do well for me to get me back into the swing of things of broadcast news.

The starting pay is not very good either, but I was expecting that from an entry-level journalism job. I'm basically looking at this as a summer job with an opportunity to move up. I think I'd rather get my foot in the door here in Madison, sort of a mid-level news market, than start out in Small Town, Wyoming and work my way up that way. I've got a lot of great friends here in Madison and I really enjoy the dynamics of the city. I'm also familiar with the environment at NBC15, so I think it would be a good fit.

I know that with my skills and experience that I can show them that I'm capable of moving up and taking on a bigger role once September rolls around. If they don't see that in me, then I might have to look for something else.

I'm sure that just about every journalist or media worker goes through this: When you first look at your starting pay and then compare it to the pay of other people with a similar degree, you sort of think, "Did I get into the right profession?," or more bluntly, "Why the hell am I being paid peanuts for my college degree?" But then you have to think about what you're doing for the public good by bringing them the news and that there's more to life and this job than money.

I may just be young and naive, but I would like to think that I can use myself as a force for good in the media and somehow help correct the wrongs both in our profession and our society in general. I'm making a big sacrifice by doing this because I know I could have chosen something different and made a lot more money, but I'm motivated by a certain ideal of what news should be about. Plus, you've got to start somewhere. There's no way I could get a higher-paying producing job without a certain amount of experience.

I may just as well go on to grad school in a few years, and if I choose to go into journalism school I think it will help that I have experience in the field. I've had a long-standing inkling that eventually I would become a professor, but it's a matter of figuring out what I want to do before I reach that point. I could end up working my way up the industry for several years before getting a higher degree. Or, I could work for a few years, get tired of it and rush back into the world of academia. We'll see what the future holds.